Men but not women increase in-group contributions when cues signal out-group competition

Evidence

This research demonstrates rather conclusively that men tend to not only exhibit more competitive and risky behavior than do women, but actually seek out opportunities to engage competitively with others. Unfortunately, this research does not address intrasexual competition within an intergroup context and also does little to demonstrate the underlying motivations for this behavior. To address the first issue regarding intergroup context, Van Vugt, De Cremer, and Janssen (2007) demonstrated, across three studies, that in public goods tasks, men contributed more to their in-group when they believed they were competing against an out-group, whereas women tended to contribute equally regardless of whether or not they thought they were competing against an out-group. These results suggest that cues of intergroup competition are particularly salient to men relative to women. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1207

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to evolutionary/gender-psychology literature on intergroup bias; relates tangentially to the reader’s general interest in violence and group conflict mechanisms. — connects to: Female professional competition unsettles male claims over the world; Perceived status drives competence judgments while perceived competition strips warmth from envied outgroups — Susan T. Fiske et al., A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype…, 42